Wellcome: £110M extension of drug discovery funding; looks for more bids

Funding opportunity

The UK medical charity the Wellcome Trust has announced an injection of £110 million to extend its Seeding Drug Discovery initiative for a further five years, as it looks for applications for the latest call, which closes in May.

The decision to extend the programme follows an internal review of the programme, launched in 2005. Since then, Seeding Drug Discovery (SDD) has committed over £80 million to fund the early stages of drug discovery work considered too high-risk to attract funding from venture capitalists, or other sources for commercial development.

The programme was set up to fund the development of small molecule drugs that address unmet medical needs, aiming to progress projects to a stage where they can attract private funding. The charity has funded academics, biotech start-ups and pharma companies, with GlaxoSmithKline included in the beneficiaries. The programmes supported to date have each received funding of £2-4 million.  

Seeding Drug Discovery is open to researchers at public or private institutions, including commercial companies. The next deadline for applications is 21 May 2010.

For more information, visit the Seeding Drug Discovery website: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Technology-transfer/Awards/Seeding-Drug-Discovery/index.htm